Seeing Progress

Seeing clear results from any project is the best motivation to keep up the work. That’s not always possible for scientists working on microscopic molecular mechanisms behind human diseases, but a new technique has given diabetes researchers a glimpse of the effect their attempts might be having. Diabetes is known for rising blood sugar levels and the loss of pancreatic beta cells, which produce insulin to help break sugars down. Recent experiments have shown it's possible to regenerate these beta cells, which could be an effective treatment, but measuring this process of restoration is key to perfecting potential approaches. This new technique provides a 3D visualisation of changes occurring in the pancreas (shown, insulin highlighted blue) and allowed researchers to watch as beta cell volume increased in diabetic mice following treatment. Seeing impacts in action will help in the development of new treatments for diabetes.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

Website

• Video from work by Urmas Roostalu and colleagues
• Gubra ApS, Hørsholm, Denmark
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Disease Models and Mechanisms, December 2020